Animations

ggplot(gapminder, 
       aes(x = gdpPercap, y = lifeExp, 
           size = pop, color = country)) +
  geom_point(alpha = 0.7) +
  scale_size(range = c(2, 12)) +
  scale_x_log10(labels = dollar_format()) +
  guides(size = FALSE, color = FALSE) +
  facet_wrap(vars(continent)) +
  # Special gganimate stuff
  labs(title = 'Year: {frame_time}') +
  transition_time(year) +
  ease_aes('linear')

Interactivity

Single plots with plotly

Easy!

Dashboards with flexdashboard

Slightly more complicated

Complete interactive apps with Shiny

Super complicated!

Single plots with plotly

Plotly is special software for
creating interactive plots with JavaScript

No knowledge of JavaScript needed!

ggplotly() in the plotly R package translates
between R and Javascript for you!

Plotly

library(gapminder)
library(plotly)
gapminder_2007 <- filter(gapminder, 
                         year == 2007)
my_plot <- ggplot(
  data = gapminder_2007,
  mapping = aes(x = gdpPercap, y = lifeExp, 
                color = continent)) +
  geom_point() +
  scale_x_log10() +
  theme_minimal()

ggplotly(my_plot)

Plotly tooltips

my_plot <- ggplot(
  data = gapminder_2007,
  mapping = aes(x = gdpPercap, y = lifeExp, 
                color = continent)) +
  geom_point(aes(text = country)) +
  scale_x_log10() +
  theme_minimal()

interactive_plot <- ggplotly(
  my_plot, tooltip = "text"
) 
interactive_plot

Works with most geoms!

car_hist <- ggplot(mpg, 
                   aes(x = hwy)) +
  geom_histogram(binwdith = 2, 
                 boundary = 0, 
                 color = "white")

ggplotly(car_hist)

Save as HTML

Save a self-contained HTML version of it with
saveWidget() in the htmlwidgets R package

# This is like ggsave, but for interactive HTML plots
htmlwidgets::saveWidget(interactive_plot, "fancy_plot.html")

Fully documented

The documentation for ggplot2 + plotly is full of
examples of how to customize everything

Rely on that ↑ + Google to make
really fancy (and easy!) interactive plots

Interactivity

Single plots with plotly

Easy!

Dashboards with flexdashboard

Slightly more complicated

Dashboards with flexdashboard

Use basic R Markdown to build a dashboard!

Dashboards with flexdashboard

Make any kind of block arrangement

Dashboards with flexdashboard

Add other elements like text and gauges

Example dashboards

Example dashboards

Example dashboards

Outstanding documentation

The documentation for flexdashboard is
full of examples and details of everything you can do

Rely on that ↑ + Google to make
really fancy (and easy!) dashboards!

Interactivity

Single plots with plotly

Easy!

Dashboards with flexdashboard

Slightly more complicated

Complete interactive apps with Shiny

Super complicated!

Shiny

Shiny is a complete web application framework for interactive statistics

It's super complex and hard for beginners

I've never made a standalone Shiny app!

(And I don't plan on trying anytime soon)

Lots of resources to help start

RStudio has a whole website for helping you get started

Really neat examples!

Really neat examples!

Really neat examples!

flexdashboard + Shiny

You can use reactive Shiny things in flexdashboards
without building a complete Shiny app!

I have done this